Bryans pick up speed in quest for titles

Updated 9:25 pm, Monday, April 7, 2014

Photo: Clive Brunskill, Staff

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PARIS - NOVEMBER 6: Bob and Mike Bryan of the USA celebrate after victory against Mark Knowles of the Bahamas and Daniel Nestor of Canada in the final ,during the BNP Paribas ATP Masters Series at the Palais Omnisports Paris-Bercy, November 6, 2005 in Paris, France. (Photo by Clive Brunskill/Getty Images) *** Local Caption *** Bob Bryan;Mike Bryan less

PARIS - NOVEMBER 6: Bob and Mike Bryan of the USA celebrate after victory against Mark Knowles of the Bahamas and Daniel Nestor of Canada in the final ,during the BNP Paribas ATP Masters Series at the Palais ... more

Photo: Clive Brunskill, Staff

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PARIS - NOVEMBER 6: Bob and Mike Bryan of the USA hold their trophies after victory against Mark Knowles of the Bahamas and Daniel Nestor of Canada in the final ,during the BNP Paribas ATP Masters Series at the Palais Omnisports Paris-Bercy, November 6, 2005 in Paris, France. (Photo by Clive Brunskill/Getty Images) *** Local Caption *** Bob Bryan;Mike Bryan less

PARIS - NOVEMBER 6: Bob and Mike Bryan of the USA hold their trophies after victory against Mark Knowles of the Bahamas and Daniel Nestor of Canada in the final ,during the BNP Paribas ATP Masters Series at ... more

Photo: Clive Brunskill, Staff

Bryans pick up speed in quest for titles

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Bob and Mike Bryan played the U.S. Men's Clay Court Championship in Houston for the first time in 2001, the year the event moved to Houston's Westside Tennis Club from Disney World.

They owned one ATP World Tour title but had lofty aspirations.

Coming off accomplished careers as amateurs - Bob was the NCAA singles champion for Stanford in 1998 and the twins also won the doubles title - they believed they had the potential to win a Grand Slam championship or two, and No. 1 in the world also seemed viable.

Still, as big as the Bryans were thinking, they weren't thinking nearly big enough.

"I remember talking to Tom Gullikson at an exhibition event, right after we'd tied his brothers' record (Tom and Tim Gullikson were the first siblings to claim 10 titles), and telling him, 'I can't believe we got to 10,' " Bob Bryan said Monday. "He said, 'Oh man, come on. You guys are going to win 40.' I told him, 'You're insane. If we get to 40, I'll buy you a new house.' "

Never happened - the house part anyway.

But the Bryans accumulated their 40th title in 2007. They claimed their 62nd, the most by any doubles team, in 2010.

'The boys' are back

In the Fayez Sarofim & Co. U.S. Men's Clay Court Championship at River Oaks Country Club, where they'll play their first match at 6 p.m. Tuesday, they're pursuing No. 97. And a victory Saturday would give Mike 99 because he won twice in 2002 with other partners when Bob was otherwise occupied, having not yet given up his singles aspirations.

"The boys," as their dad, Wayne calls them, are back in Houston in a redemptive mood. They lost the final at River Oaks last spring, after winning the first set 6-1, to Jamie Murray (Andy's brother) and John Peers, who had paired for the first time.

It was a shocking reversal of fortune considering the Bryans had won 19 consecutive Houston matches while claiming the four previous Clay Courts titles.

But the plan is to make things right.

Can they, as they approach their 36th birthdays? Uh, yeah. They're 20-3 for the year - 17-1 since Feb. 1 - and have won 13 in a row, good for consecutive trophies in Delray Beach, Indian Wells and Miami. Regarding the latter two, the most significant championships in the spring in the U.S., it marked the first time they pulled off that one-two.

Dominant year

Older? Definitely. Better? The evidence appears to suggest as much.

The Bryans' 2013 season, despite the River Oaks hiccup, was their most dominant. After also surrendering the Monte Carlo final in similarly maddening fashion the week after Houston - they squandered seven match points - they went on a 33-1 run, good for five titles, including the French Open and Wimbledon, another first-ever double.

"In my high school annual, in 'prophesies and predictions' for the seniors, I said my son would be the No. 1 singles player in the world," said Wayne, who's the on-court emcee before and after Clay Courts matches. "If I'd known I was going to have twins, I'd have said my sons were going to be the No. 1 doubles team in the world."

Considering the Bryans' experience - no doubles duo has accumulated so much shared muscle memory - their intuitive grasp of what the other is thinking on the court and the confidence that goes with such a prodigious statistical body of work, it's startling when they lose. It doesn't happen often, though.

Since January 2013, they are 90-16 with 14 titles, only one fewer than they accumulated in 2011-12, when it was assumed they were contemplating winding down. Bob, after all, had started a family.

"He'd like to get off the tour sooner than me, I think," said Mike, who's married without children.

What's in store?

But that's a conversation for another day. The plan is to surpass the century mark in victories before the year is out, hopefully adding a couple of more Slams to go with the 15 they've collected (three more than anyone else), then keep going, full-speed ahead, through the 2016 Olympics.

"But, if we're still having fun and still kicking some butt … " Mike said. "Who knows?"